Estonia continues to erect barriers on the border with Russia. On the Friendship Bridge, connecting Ivangorod in the Leningrad region and Narva in northeastern Estonia, metal gates have been installed, reports Delfi. Also, work is underway in this area to install retractable barriers for the complete blockage of vehicular traffic.
In the future, similar barriers are planned to be installed on the pedestrian part as well. Construction work is expected to be completed by the end of September.
According to ERR, Merle Tikk, the project manager within the Police and Border Guard Department, reported that the construction of border infrastructure has been completed on approximately 60 kilometers of the land section. Work continues on another 26 kilometers, and it is expected that work will begin on another 20 kilometers in the spring.
The length of the land border between Estonia and Russia is 135.6 kilometers.
«Only those sections where natural obstacles, such as rivers and lakes, already serve as the border and where infrastructure construction is impractical, will remain without border infrastructure», — explained Tikk.
It is noted that on the Russian side of the bridge, work has also begun on the construction of a new transport border checkpoint.
On June 19, the Estonian Ministry of Defense announced that Estonia had begun the construction of anti-tank ditches in the southeastern part of the country near the border with Russia. They will become part of the so-called Baltic Defense Line, being created jointly with Latvia and Lithuania.
By the fall of 2025, the country's Defense Forces, together with the State Defense Investment Center (RKIK), plan to build up to 28 bunkers and up to ten storage sites, as well as equip up to four kilometers of anti-tank ditches, said Armin Siilivask, a representative of the Estonian Institute of Nuclear Energy responsible for the creation of the fortification line.